How to Copy a Vmware Virtual Machine to Another PC

Would you like to learn how copy a virtual machine vmware to another PC? On this occasion we bring you a tutorial with different methods to make this cloning. You just have to follow the steps that we will show you and you will be able to have 2 Virtual machines with the same resources. We invite you to stay:

4 Methods to Copy a Vmware Virtual Machine to Another PC

Now, we will show you the 4 methods to copy a Vmware virtual machine to another PC. Each of these ways has been tested to ensure that your backup is successful. Let's see which ones they are:

Method 1: Copy a Vmware virtual machine to another PC in Windows

• Step 1:: First of all, you need to download and install the OVFTOOL software. which you can find in this LINKThe installation package comes with the following features:
  • Distribution: VMware OVF Tool 64-bit.
  • Number of downloads: 8986756.
  • Distribution date: April 17 from 2018.

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• Step 2:: After downloading the software package, you must open the program and enter the IP of Vmware ESXi and go directly to your console

• Step 3:: Next, you need to note down the path where the OVFTOOL software was installed.

NOTE: : For this tutorial, the installed OVFTOOL program path is as follows: C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool\

• Step 4:: After installing the OVFTOOL program package, you will need to open the (DOS) prompt to then locate the OVFTOOL path.
• Step 5:: This will allow you to have direct access to the path (C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware OVF Tool) This can also be opened from the VMware OVF Tool window. Command Prompt with the following instructions:
  • C:
  • cd%program files%
  • cd vmware
  • cd «VMware OVF Tool»
• Step 6:: Then, you need to use the following command instructions to do an UBUNTU installation on a virtual machine from the VMware ESXi servers.
  • Origin: VMware ESXi server 192.168.0.50
  • Destination: VMware ESXi server 192.168.0.100
  • ovftool -ds=datastore1 vi://root@192.168.0.50/UBUNTU vi://root@192.168.0.100
• Step 7:: Now, you should be able to access both servers and log in to Vmware from the root account.
• Step 8:: You will have to wait for the process to complete the copy.

• Step 9:: Now you can access the target Vmware ESXi server and activate the virtual machine.

NOTE: : Remember to shut down the virtual machine on the source Vmware ESXi server.

• Step 10:: You have now copied a Vmware virtual machine between ESXi servers.

Method 2: Copy a Vmware virtual machine to another PC using VMware Tools

With VMware Workstation VMware Tools, which are available for many types of OS, you can easily transfer folders and files from your physical computer to a virtual machine and vice versa.

To do this, you can use 2 techniques:

• drag and drop.
• VMware Workstation Folder Shares.

Please note that in both cases you will need VMware Tools in the guest OS and enable the corresponding option in your virtual machine settings. Let's see how you can copy a Vmware virtual machine to another PC using VMware Tools:

File Transfer in Windows

Drag and drop and copy/paste

• Step 1:: For starters, you can transfer files very easily from the physical PC to the virtual machine by just drag and drop. But you can also use copy/paste in both directions (physical machine to virtual machine and vice versa).

However, to do this, make sure that these features are enabled in your virtual machine settings. By default, these options are enabled and available in the “Guest isolation«:

• Enable drag and drop
• Enable copy and paste

NOTE: If these options are disabled and grayed out, power off the virtual machine before you can enable them.

• Step 2:: To transfer a file from the physical computer to the virtual machine, you just need to drag and drop it into the virtual machine window (where the guest operating system is displayed). You can also right-click on the file. "Copy" on the physical computer and right click on "Paste" in the guest operating system.

• Step 3:: A VMware transfer window will appear, then the guest OS will display another one. As you can see, the files or folders dragged / dropped will be copied by the guest operating system from a folder with a strange name.

• Step 4:: When you use the drag and drop feature, VMware Tools temporarily copies the data to a subfolder «vmware-xxxx\VMwareDnD» from the guest operating system's temporary folder.

VMware File Shares on Windows

To share folders from your physical PC to make them read-only (for security) or read/write (if needed) by the virtual machine.

• Step 1:: To do this, open the virtual machine settings and go to the section «Shared folders» and select the option you need:
  • Disabled: VMware file sharing disabled (default)
  • Always enabled: always enabled (for this virtual machine)
  • Enabled until next shutdown or sleep: enabled until the virtual machine is powered off or paused
  • Map as a network drive in guests Windows: Automatically creates a network drive where you will find all the shares created here. This makes it easier to access these shares.
• Step 2:: Click Add to create a new share.

• Step 3:: The Add Share wizard appears.

• Step 4:: Click Browse to select the folder you want to share and make it accessible to the virtual machine.
• Step 5:: Next, specify the name under which this share will appear in the guest operating system.

• Step 6:: Enable sharing by checking the box «Enable this share» and checking the box "Read only" if you want this share to be read-only.

• Step 7:: Save the settings and click Yes.

• Step 8:: If you do not check the box “Map as network drive…”, the share will not appear by default in Computer (or This PC).

• Step 9:: In order to access it, you will have to go through the network (but you will surely encounter a problem with network discovery disabled by default). To access it without problems, type: \\ vmware-host \ Shared Folders

NOTE: : As you can see, the InformatiWeb share appears.

• Step 10:: In this folder, you will find the files in this shared folder.

NOTE: : To make your life easier, we recommend that you check the box «Map as network drive in Windows guests» to have VMware Workstation automatically create a network drive whose contents match the list of shared folders here.

Step 11:: Under Computer (or This PC), you will see a network drive “Shared folders» which can be accessed with the letter Z and which is assigned to \\ vmware-host \ Shared Folders.

As expected, you will have access to the list of shares created in the virtual machine configuration.

Method 3: Copy a Vmware virtual machine to another PC by moving directories

VMware developers offer a range of virtual machine programs for Windows, Mac OS X and LinuxVMware creates virtual machines (VMs) that run guest operating systems within the host operating system running on the computer.

Each virtual machine has its own configuration. hardware and a VMDK file that contains an image of the operating system's virtual hard disk. You can transfer a VMware virtual machine from one computer to another by moving the directory containing these files, as long as the virtual machine is powered off first.

• Step 1:: Shut down the virtual machine if it is on by clicking the “Virtual machine» from VMware, by hovering the mouse cursor over «On» and clicking «Delete«.
• Step 2:: Select the virtual machine by clicking on the name in the VMware window.
• Step 3:: Click on the menu «Virtual machine", Then in "Virtual machine configuration«.
• Step 4:: Click on the “ tabOptions» at the top of the settings window that appears.
• Step 5:: Read the directory in the « areaWorking directory» located in the lower right corner of the dashboard Options. This directory contains the virtual machine files.
• Step 6:: Click on «Home«, Click«Computer» and navigate to the virtual machine's working directory on your computer.
• Step 7:: Transfer the virtual machine's working directory to another computer using a flash drive USB, a recordable disc, or a network connection.
• Step 8:: Click on the menu «Archive» from VMware on the other computer, then click «Open virtual machine«.
• Step 9:: Go to the virtual machine's working directory and double-click the VMX file it contains.

Method 4: Copy a Vmware virtual machine to another PC by making a backup

VMware backup refers to the process of copying data to a virtual machine (VM) in a VMware environment to prevent data loss. VMware backup, and by extension virtual server backup, is a common challenge for backup administrators and storageVirtual server backup refers to the copying of data stored on a virtual server. virtual server to prevent data loss.

Conventional backup software is a simple method for performing a VMware backup, but it can introduce resource contention; the additional resources you would need to perform a backup could compromise the performance of the virtual machine on the server being backed up.

VMware-specific backup products that can capture one-time snapshots of the complete state of your virtual machine can be used to resolve any resource conflict issues that arise. This would allow for a quick and complete recovery of virtual machines. However, normally you will need to restore the full snapshot when a single file is corrupted or missing. New VMware-specific tools can handle file-level restore.

How to Backup VMware Virtual Machines

To back up your virtual machine (including the operating system, application files, user data, and settings), you need a copy of the original folder where the virtual machine is stored. To do this, proceed as follows:

• Step 1:: Shut down your virtual machine. Leaving the virtual machine running while copying may result in a copy that refuses to start.
• Step 2:: Find the destination folder you want to copy.
• Step 3:: Right-click the folder, then click Copy or press Ctrl + C.
• Step 4:: Select the location of your choice.
• Step 5:: Press Ctrl + V or right click inside the folder and click paste. You will see a progress bar indicating that the process is in progress.
• Step 6:: Once the process is complete, start the copied virtual machine. The workstation prompts you to specify whether you copied or moved the virtual machine.

If it says that you have moved the virtual machine locally to the hard drive, all settings will be retained. However, the option «Copied» will ensure the generation of a new MAC address and UUID to ensure that no conflict occurs on the network.

Three methods to copy a Vmware virtual machine to another PC by backing up and restoring data

VMware Backup has made fundamental improvements in the world of data protection, such as the benefits of encapsulation and abstraction. However, challenges remain, including how to ensure data consistency and address the problem of excessive consumption of physical resources by this technology.

It's tempting to think that backing up your server is as easy as backing up VMDK format files. (Virtual Machine Disk) underlying, because VMware includes the physical servers in a bunch of those big hard drive image files.

Also, back up a running virtual machine does not guarantee that all activities of movement are fully taken into account. This means that you run the risk of inconsistent data and therefore inaccurate information at the end, making the restore unsuccessful.

The challenge of excessive resource consumption is a side effect of virtualization. In fact, one of the main reasons why You should virtualize your systems with VMware is to ensure that you concentrate resource consumption on a few physical servers, thereby reducing the number of downtime cycles that most computing server infrastructures experience. Unfortunately, this also You have to deal with the inability to have enough resources that allow your data backups to run unhindered.

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You should also keep in mind that your backups are at their most vulnerable points within VMware due to its limited ability to handle a Excessive network or disk I/OYour decision to virtualize a physical server often negatively impacts the amount of network or disk I/O present.

Despite these problems, there are suitable methods to solve them and provide you with benefits that, in some cases, may be superior to a standard physical backup and restore. However, There is no proven best method for backing up or restoring VMwareFor many managers, the ends justify the means, and what works for one doesn't necessarily work for the other.

Method 1: Local backup agent installed on each virtual machine

In this traditional approach, a backup software agent is installed on the virtual machine as on a physical server. Data flows to the backup/recovery infrastructure, via the LAN, in the same way as if the agent were installed on a physical server.

The advantages of this method are as follows:

• No procedural changes or special skills are required, as the installation and configuration of the Backup Agent is similar to the process followed when using a physical server.
• The restore process is also unchanged from a file-level restore of the physical server.
• File level restore is possible.
• Full and incremental backups are possible.
• This method helps maintain application data consistency if you use application-aware backup agents such as Exchange or SQL.

 Disadvantages include the following:

• It is easy to overload host resources since all backups are running on a single server.
• The backup agent does not recognize that your servers are encapsulated in large VMDK files, which means that from a disaster recovery perspective, the value is minimal.

Method 2: Backup Agent installed on ESX Service Console

In this method, you install the backup software agent on the designated ESX service console and back up the underlying set of VMDK files for each virtual machine.

The advantages are as follows:

• You only need one backup agent, as opposed to one agent per virtual machine.
• You can backup all your virtual machines by simply backing up the VMDK files.
• Fast image-level recovery is possible.

 The disadvantages are the following:

• You need scripts to automate virtual machine shutdown, startup, and snapshots to ensure application consistency.
• A file-level restore or incremental backup is not possible.
• VMware plans to eventually remove the ESX Server Service Console.

Method 3: VMware Consolidated Backup

VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) VCB refers to a backup infrastructure that offloads virtual machine backup from the ESX server. The configuration removes backup traffic from a network and frees up ESX server resources for virtual machine performance. VCB includes other features, including:

• File-level full and incremental backups, plus full image backups.
• Support for Fiber Channel, NAS storage and local storage infrastructure or iSCSI.
• Manage backups from a central point.

 However, VCB is different from your regular backup agent because it is basically a line-of-service tool. commands composed of several Windows executable programs. When you add scripts, These programs may also provide a framework that can be used by other third-party products..

VCB has some limitations, including the need for a dedicated Windows proxy server and third-party backup programs. With the release of vSphere 4, backup vendors are turning to third-party interfaces. programming vStorage Application APIs that have replaced VCB.

Benefits of VCB Proxy

• You can use a single backup agent for all your virtual machines.
• You can backup all your virtual machines by simply backing up the VMDK files.
• Fast image recovery is possible because the process involves transmitting one large image file instead of searching for many small files.
• Using VCB proxy server for backup process reduces the overhead of ESX server.
• This LAN-less approach with SAN should, in theory, provide a faster backup compared to a LAN-based method.

The disadvantages are the following:

• The automation and ease of use of the VCB proxy depends on the capabilities of your third-party backup software.
• This method is complex to implement, especially if you don't have a backup software integration option to simplify the process.
• You will need to install a backup software agent on your virtual machine if you want a direct file-level restore.
• When using Windows without VSS integration, the VCB image-level backup is consistent in the event of a failure.
• VCB does not provide a mechanism to support Windows system state backups. While you can achieve a successful full server restore, it is not guaranteed if your system was in transition during the virtual machine snapshot process.

What is VMware vSphere?

It is a server virtualization platform that debuted in 2009 as the successor to VMware's flagship infrastructure solution. It is a complete platform for the implementation and management of a large-scale virtual machine infrastructure.

Also It is commonly known as a virtualized data center platform or a cloud operating system. It has the ability to enable your IT department to TI Efficiently place application workloads on cost-effective computing resources.

The operation and architecture of a virtual environment differ from that of a traditional backup environment in that they require specific techniques. When it comes to backing up virtual machines on this platform, you need to utilize the strengths of virtualization if you want to maximize your backup capabilities and restore efficiency.

Additionally, you can't rely on the same principles you used in your traditional physical environment when you opt for a virtual environment. Here are eight appropriate backup practices to follow:

1. Do not backup your virtual machines in the guest operating system layer

With traditional servers, you typically install a backup agent on your guest operating system (OS) that your backup server contacts every time you need to back up data.

However, This method is ineffective in a virtual environment because it results in unnecessary consumption of virtual machine resources, affecting both its performance and that of other machines running on the host.

Instead, you should back up your data at the virtualization layer. Here you will use image-level backups for the file .vmdk large to avoid involving the guest operating system.

To do this, you need to use a backup application that is designed to run in the virtualization environment and can directly back up the machine's virtual disk without having to involve the host or guest operating system.

This allows you to eliminate unnecessary resource consumption while ensuring your virtual machines get the resources they need for their workloads.

2. Take advantage of vStorage APIs

The vStorage API were introduced with vSphere to replace the VMware Consolidated Backup Infrastructure that was launched with VMware Infrastructure 3 to facilitate offloading backup processing from the host.

Not only do they allow easier access to a virtual machine's disk file, but they also contain unique features that can dramatically improve backup speeds, for example, the modified block tracking feature.

Changed Block Tracking (CBT) refers to a feature that keeps track of all blocks changed since the last backup, so a backup application only needs to query the VMkernel for information.

Additionally, this operation means that the backup application no longer needs to track changed data, allowing for faster incremental backup. You should use applications that leverage vStorage APIs because of their efficiency.

3. Never skimp on virtual machine backup resources to copy a Vmware virtual machine to another PC

If you want to have the shortest backup window possible, make sure you get the right hardware and software for your backup server to avoid operational issues. You should have adequate network bandwidth, as well as enough memory and CPU resources.

Your backup server does more than just move data from the source to the destination storage device. It also performs data deduplication and compression to reduce the size of your backup sets. All processes require a lot of memory and CPU to keep up with the flow of data.

Always follow your provider's hardware recommendations for your server. Don't back up to your servers, as backups can slow down considerably if the server lacks adequate resources. Try the many third-party tools available to help with backups before selecting the right one.

4. Plan and test your backups carefully

Virtual environment backups can be very resource intensive due to the shared virtualization architecture. Therefore, you should set your backup schedule to avoid putting everything on a single resource.

• E.g.: Never back up multiple VMs to a single host or LUN simultaneously. Instead, try to balance your schedule to avoid overusing a resource.

While scheduling prevents slow and degraded performance, testing lets you know if you're ready to restore your backup. Testing is also important for troubleshooting, analyzing your tools, and deciding whether to switch products or not.

5. Learn how suspend and VSS work to copy a Vmware virtual machine to another PC

If your virtual machine backups include transactional applications such as databases and mail servers, you should suspend them to ensure that they are in a suitable state for running. This type of backup is said to be application-consistent.

Before you start the backup, applications are suspended to ensure that all pending transactions and writes are written to disk.

This step ensures that the server is working properly and that no data is lost if a virtual machine restore is required. Pause only works with applications that support pausing and writing pending data when necessary.

VMware Tools has a driver that can work with the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to suspend applications before performing a backup. The need has led other vendors to offer a similar drive to serve different operating systems.

Therefore, always make sure that you are using a supported driver and that your VSS service is enabled and configured to perform application-consistent backups.

6. Snapshots are not backups

Virtual machine snapshots, while useful, should never be used as a primary backup medium. Snapshots are fine for short-term backups of virtual machines, but be aware that you will incur penalties each time you use them.

After creating a snapshot, all disk writes from the virtual machine are diverted to another new delta disk file, making the original disk read-only.

As data is written to the file on the delta disk, it increases in 16 MB increments, and each increment causes a lock on the LUN where it is located, which can degrade performance. As a result, the more snapshots you take, the more impact it will have on performance..

Additionally, snapshots take up additional disk space, as each one can grow to the size of the original disk. If you run out of space on your datastores, you risk shutting down all of your virtual machines. Additionally, merging data from a snapshot back to its original version after deleting it is an I/O-heavy operation.

Snapshots create new virtual disks and point to the original; therefore, some functionality may be missing. This can cause a completely new allocation problem between the snapshots and the original disk. You should use snapshots sparingly and delete them when you no longer need them.

Consider fault-tolerant backup alternatives to copy a Vmware virtual machine to another PC

Most virtualization backup products with image-level backups use virtual machine snapshots to stop disk writes while backups are running.

The fault tolerance (FT) function uses two virtual machines (one primary and one secondary) that, although located on separate hosts, share the same virtual disk file.

At present, the FT function does not support snapshotsThis makes the process of backing up FT-compatible virtual machines difficult, and you will have to look for other backup methods.

One method is to temporarily disable the FT function during the backup process. to allow snapshots to be taken. Disabling this feature allows you to keep the second virtual machine. You can automate this process using PowerShell, as well as pre- and post-backup scripts.

Another method is to clone the virtual machine through vCenter Converter o vCenter Server to create another copy. Once you have saved the new copy, you can delete the clone.

Back up the host and vCenter Server configurations.

You can easily rebuild a lost host or vCenter, but you will lose your configuration information. Therefore, it is a good idea to save the information periodically. With a backup host, you only back up the virtual machines and not the individual files that reside in your management console. Therefore, saving the configuration information makes it easier to rebuild the host later.

To save configuration information:

• For ESX hosts: use the command esxcfg-info from the service console. It will display a lot of configuration information in a single text file.
• For ESXi hosts: use the command vicfg-cfgbackup (part of vSphere CLI). Will display the configuration information in a text file.
• For vCenter Server: You should back up the database that contains server-specific configuration information including clusters, permissions, resource pools, performance data, alarms, and more. If this works, you can reinstall vCenter Server later, point it to the backup database, and resume operations. Remember to save the folder containing the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate located in the data directory. It contains the SSL certificates that vCenter uses to communicate with ESXi and ESX hosts, as well as clients.

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Conclusion

VMware has attempted to address the backup issues associated with virtualization servers. VMware vSphere 5.1For example, it uses VMware vStorage API for Data Protection (VADP) that works with VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP) or other third-party backup tools.

VADP replaces VMware Consolidated Backup with an efficient agentless backup system based on virtual proxies and does not tax storage resources. In fact, it is equipped with change block tracking to allow saving only the data blocks that have changed since the previous backup. This reduces the workload of backup tools like VDP. This way you can copy a Vmware virtual machine to another PC by making a backup.